Verstappen is looking forward to a 'more stable' 2025 season.

      Max Verstappen is openly wishing for a "more stable" season with Red Bull in 2025. F1 legend Gerhard Berger, the first-ever Red Bull-supported athlete, expressed concern this week about the instability and performance drop at the F1 team last year. "It will be intriguing to see if Red Bull can regain its former strength or if Verstappen will continue facing challenges in securing wins," he shared with Auto Motor und Sport. "If that's the case, he'll need to evaluate if he's still in the right team," Berger remarked.

      Team principal Christian Horner, who personally endured the power struggles and scandals of 2024, views last year's issues as primarily related to car performance. "We have realized where the development fell short last year," he was quoted as saying by La Gazzetta dello Sport. "When we managed to get the car into the optimal window, we performed well, but even slight deviations made the car very difficult to handle."

      Horner further explained: "The engineers have been concentrating since mid-2024 and throughout the winter on how to broaden this window—not necessarily to add outright performance, but simply to extend the range." Interestingly, technical director Pierre Wache is skeptical about this approach, cautioning that "by broadening that sweet spot, we might overlook the actual potential that is theoretically available."

      Regarding Verstappen, although Red Bull missed out on the constructors' championship last year, the Dutch driver still secured his fourth consecutive drivers' world title. Looking ahead to the new season, Verstappen stated: "What I’m most looking forward to is seeing how competitive we can be. Last year presented some challenges at times," he added. "We certainly had many positive moments, but there were also some tough times. Hopefully, we can achieve a bit more stability and consistency throughout the season."

      However, he dismissed any suggestion that his patience or mindset might be tested due to the issues of 2024. "Honestly, my mindset hasn’t really shifted," said the 27-year-old. "Winning four titles has been a dream—more than just a dream, really. So I feel relaxed. I have a new teammate in Liam (Lawson), and I'm eager to collaborate with him. I'm simply looking forward to gauging our competitiveness. From there, once we understand how capable we are, we can set our goals. But it's too early to make any assessments now."